HERALD INVESTMENT TRUST plc ANNUAL REPORT ...

TOP TWENTY EQUITY HOLDINGS
AT 31 DECEMBER 2010
A brief description of the twenty largest equity holdings in companies is as follows:
SDL
SDL is the leader in Global Information Management (GIM) solutions that help organisations
to accelerate the delivery of high-quality multilingual content to global markets alongside their
products and services. SDL’s best-of-breed Web Content Management, eCommerce, Structured
Content and Language Technologies, combined with its Language Services drive down the cost
of content creation, management, translation and publishing. SDL solutions increase conversion
ratios and customer satisfaction through targeted information across all customer touch points.
Global industry leaders who rely on SDL include ABN-Amro, Bosch, Canon, CNH, FICO,
GlaxoSmithKline, Hewlett-Packard, KLM, Microsoft, NetApp, Philips, SAP and Sony. SDL has over
1,500 enterprise customers, has deployed over 170,000 software licenses and provides access
to on-demand portals for 10 million customers per month. It has a global infrastructure of more
than 60 offices in 35 countries. SDL is in Gartner’s leader quadrant for web content management.
Imagination Technologies Group
Imagination Technologies is an international leader in the creation and licensing of semiconductor
System-on-Chip Intellectual Property (SoC IP). Imagination creates market-leading embedded
graphics, video and display acceleration, multi-threaded processing and multi-standard receiver
technologies and licenses this IP (Intellectual Property) to global semiconductor and system
companies. These technologies are used in the following markets: digital radio and audio,
mobile phone multimedia, personal media player, car navigation and driver information, personal
navigation, mobile computing, digital TV and set-top box, and mobile TV. Imagination has been
particularly successful in selling graphics technology to the mobile phone and LCD TV sectors and
is a pioneer in developing Digital Audio Broadcasting Technology (DAB). Imagination Technology
incorporates this technology in its “Pure Digital” radio brand, which is the number one supplier of
radios in the UK. The adoption of digital radio in other countries, France and Germany in particular,
is opening up a bigger international market and they have launched an internet radio range for the
US market. The group has a highly skilled workforce of over 600 people, of which over 80% are
R&D engineers. Apple and Intel are both investors in Imagination Technologies.
Phoenix IT Group
Phoenix IT was established in 1980, the Group provides a growing range of complementary
IT infrastructure support services including systems management, communications, remote
telephone support, high-touch field services, project and consultancy services as well as
business continuity and disaster recovery services. Often these services are sold and delivered
as a managed service where Phoenix manages complex IT infrastructures to agreed levels of
service under long-term contracts. In May 2007 Phoenix acquired ICM for £130m in cash and
shares, ICM had been a portfolio holding since 2002.
Telecom Plus
Telecom Plus, which owns and operates the Utility Warehouse brand, is the UK’s only fully integrated
provider of a wide range of competitively priced utility services, spanning both the communications
and energy markets. Telecom Plus supplies fixed wire and mobile telecommunications services, gas
and electricity to over 350,000 residential and small business customers in the United Kingdom with
a unified bill and good value utilities. Telecom Plus was incorporated in 1996 and began operations
in 1997 providing a unique range of low-cost telephony services to the residential and SOHO
markets. They use the collective buying power of individual users to negotiate bulk buying deals
with major suppliers, passing the benefit back to their customers. Telecom Plus does not advertise
and has no shops. Instead, they rely on word of mouth recommendations from satisfied customers
and from a network of Independent Distributors.
Group NBT
Group NBT is a leading provider of domain names, managed hosting solutions and other internetrelated
services. With five market-leading brands, Group NBT is now made up of the following
companies: NetBenefit, providing high quality managed hosting services in both the UK and
Continental Europe; NetNames, providing registration services for every top level domain
available and providing corporate domain name management to large organisations through
its industry leading NetNames Platinum Service, which is now used by over 30% of the FTSE
100; Easily.co.uk, a top UK provider of cost effective web hosting and domain name services to
UK businesses and consumers; Speednames, the dominant provider of domain name services
in Denmark; Ascio, which is responsible for the provision of domain name services indirectly
through more than 300 partnerships including telecom operators, web hosting companies,
internet access providers and IP law firms; and Envisional, whose services monitor the internet
for brand abuse, fraud, counterfeiting and piracy. Group NBT currently has over 280 employees
world-wide, with offices in London, Copenhagen, New York, Nice, Munich, Zurich and Oslo.
Country
United Kingdom
% of total assets 4.0
% of issued share capital held 4.3
31/12/10 31/12/09
Valuation (£m) 21.55 15.23
Shares (m) 3.36 3.71
Country
United Kingdom
% of total assets 3.9
31/12/10 31/12/09
Valuation (£m) 21.00 22.25
Shares (m) 5.86 9.23
Country
United Kingdom
% of total assets 2.6
% of issued share capital held 7.1
31/12/10 31/12/09
Valuation (£m) 14.09 8.21
Shares (m) 5.35 3.10
Country
United Kingdom
% of total assets 2.3
% of issued share capital held 3.9
31/12/10 31/12/09
Valuation (£m) 12.07 8.06
Shares (m) 2.69 2.74
Country
United Kingdom
% of total assets 2.0
% of issued share capital held 9.7
31/12/10 31/12/09
Valuation (£m) 10.45 7.98
Shares (m) 2.52 2.53
12